olive nexus
As the title says, the Gungir will release 'charge' ie 'fire' if the player is holding space and enters the 'J' menu. If the player is not careful to discharge the weapon prior to entering the menu, they could inadvertently fire on friendlies, causing a fight to break out.
Perhaps a 'spin down' or 'hold previous action' mechanic could work as a solution?
daring drum
I'm not sure this would be a good idea. It would also make any other system that is engaged while entering the OMS to still be engaged while you are adjusting settings.
Flying with a charged particle accelerator seems like a risky idea in the fist place.
olive nexus
'Risky'? Nah, a fully powered particle accelerator is PERFECTLY safe!! 😂
I'm not even sure what the alternative would be. Simply a thought, maybe someone has something my old brain can't think of.
daring drum
Don't fly with a charged gunny?
olive nexus
I don't do it often. It generally occurs when I forget I'm holding space, and I have a contact pop in. I have had it happen ONCE where I accidently hit the contact, which instantly agro'd them.
wicked maple
Don't fly with a charged gunny?
I think the OMS should cancel the charge instead of shooting.
olive nexus
I think the OMS should cancel the charge instead of shooting.
I had this thought too, but as it might concern lore, it wouldn't make much sense, I think. I think a 'spin down' sequence (ofc OMS time is slowed slightly) could be a lore friendly solution (if one were to be entertained). This could be some amount of time to dissipate the charge. This would also bleed back into 'realtime' when exiting the menu, meaning more charge time.
wicked maple
I had this thought too, but as it might concern lore, it wouldn't make much sens...
I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
random basalt
The "charge" is not just magnetic coils magnetizing.
How circular accelerators typically work is - the particle gets injected (sometimes coming out of a pre-accelerator) and then gains energy over multiple (many) loops.
If there is indeed a projectile already in the loop, just depowering the magnets would be rather awkward, so the safest option might indeed be to discharge it the "normal" way
Someone mentioned the clearing bucket on a firing range in some of the recent (unrelated) discussions - sometimes discharging a weapon is the safest option. So presumably before going into menu (or for a drink) the pilot should safely discharge the Gungnir.
Although i can also see the argument for player comfort and QoL should take precedence over realism.
We could just invent some safe discharge mode, where the projectile gets expelled at lower power, but then the coils have to go though a full discharge and cooldown cycle, causing some extra delay before being ready to go again (i think it's what ButItRuns might be getting at).
wicked maple
Ahh. I see. To me, the exact mechanism doesn't matter. What matters is the weapon not firing if I open the OMS screen, most of all because charged SPC rounds create an EMP effect on roids so it can really hurt if you hit the wrong target by accident. It's a safety feature to only fire when I intentionally release the trigger.
random basalt
I think another possible solution might be to change the control.
Drop the current "hold to charge, release to fire" (This is obviously problematic in the menu, since you necessarily release the button to do menu stuff, and then unless you come out of the menu holding the button... it's a whole mess).
Instead we could use click to power up, click again to fire (There are possible variants like - power on to power up, click to fire. And there are also some implications - the weapon would presumably cause constant power draw while in charged state).
But the gain here would be - the weapon then always has a defined state, that is independent of the current buttons being pressed, held etc.
Such a state could then just persist, while we are in the menu.